Co. Clare Excursion

So, on Sunday, we (that is, the API group) were taken on a tour of East County Clare, heading to Bunratty Castle and folk park, Kilmacduagh Monastery, and Coole Park. We drove first to Bunratty Castle, built in 1425 and refurbished within the last couple centuries. It was the home of the O'Briens (descendants of the high king Brian Boru), Earls of Thomond, until it fell into disrepair around the 17th century. Now it's been fancified with all sorts of gorgeous Medieval furnishings and tapestries, although not all Irish, sadly. Still, you get the feeling of the times. There were gigantic, perfectly preserved antlers of Irish Elk (long extinct) on the walls that were found in a bog. Isn't that just cool? You also get an idea of how much shorter everyone was then! Doorways were tiny, and the spiral staircases barely held the boys - you had to call up the stairs when you wanted to ascend to make sure no one was coming down already, and vice versa. Being in places like this is incredible to me, as an American, because of how very old they are. We barely have buildings from the 18th century at home, let alone the 15th! (or the 7th, like the tower at Kilmacduagh) It's just mind-boggling sometimes. Anyway, the castle has several staircases all branching out from the Great Hall, and they have lots of rooms decorated that you can walk through and photograph. One of the rooms above was the Ladies' Gallery, where they could hang out and, through a small square hole in the wall, watch what the men were up to in the Great Hall below. After the castle tour we walked around the village, set up to look like old-timey Ireland. We were much taken with the farm animals, which is why you'll see quite a few pictures of them. Short anecdote: about two minutes after I took the picture of the ducks, who were standing right next to our group as we admired the pigs and things, the male duck (the darker one) leaped upon the female duck and... well, you know. We were all rather taken aback, as you can imagine.

Then it was finally time for lunch, so we put that incident out of our minds and drove to the village of Gort. We ate at Supermacs, which is a fast food chain with very tasty food. We filled the restaurant. Trays upon trays of chips (fries, to you Americans) were frantically brought out to us (imagine, if you can, the anchovies swarming in that memorable first episode of Spongebob Squarepants). Later, when no one had ketchup, I went up to the counter to ask and received a box full of packets. I turned around and asked if anyone wanted ketchup, and about 2.5 seconds later I was left holding the box with three lone packets remaining.

Kilmacduagh is made up of a round tower (that now leans to the side) that was constructed in the 7th century as a safe place for the treasure and manuscripts of the monks against the threat of the Vikings, who nevertheless succeeded in pillaging and looting. There is a monastery, chapel, and bishop's residence right around the tower, all from between the 14th and 16th centuries, I believe, and all now in a ruined state. Cows grazed next to one, sheep another. All around the tower is a cemetery filled with the gorgeous high crosses you saw so many of in my pictures. Ireland is remarkable in many ways, one of which is that you can drive along past ordinary houses and fields, then suddenly you come upon a stunning place like this, with stretches of nothing to either side, and beyond that more ordinary houses. They just set up the new stuff next to the old, no problem. I love it here.

Coole Park was the home of Lady Gregory and was something like the Mecca of Irish writers: William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, J.M. Synge (everyone with three names!) would come to the Park to hang out, soak up the tranquility, and write brilliant things. The house no longer stands (as a sign of English nobility in its design, I am given to understand, it was apparently destroyed by angry mobbing poor people during some time of oppression or another), but the park and turlough (lake) are kept up and open to the public. Many many families bring their bike-riding children to travel along the trails (all the bikes were pink, I should add) and picnic on the lawn. The autograph tree was very exciting to see, as it holds the initials of all these famous personages. We went into the woods to walk the trails down to the lake, and Finn took us into a fairy ring (with fun curvy trees!) to make a wish. The woods are spectacular, as I have rhapsodized in an earlier post (it was late at night when I originally wrote that...) and the lake incredibly tranquil. All in all, it was a marvelous day in all senses of the word.

I also started archery this week, which was very fun. I could use some more work. Still, everyone in the club is friendly and has a good time, so there was no pressure. I just happened to be in a group with naturally talented people - had I been in the group next to us, I would have been stellar by comparison. Ah well. No more posts for a few days... Shaina, Julie, Jaye (all API girls), Anne (Shaina's flatmate), and I are going to Cork for the weekend!